(Part 2) Top products from r/Trichsters

Your parents sound like they are unintentionally awful. They are probably great people who just don't know how to help you. Your brother is probably just an arse who learned all of his social finesse from your parents, no doubt.

My big brother teases me about things (I crashed mum's motorbike once...), but never my hair pulling (on my beard) or my face picking (dermatillomania). I get upset, but remember that he is just that way.

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I would try to focus on your pulling (not the nasty people in your life). Have you considered trying a supplement like NAC. There seems to be quite a bit of evidence to suggest that it helps with compulsive behaviors. It is also fairly cheap (and safe as far as I can tell).

There was also a fairly recent post about stress and how people respond to it. I pull when I am stressed, but understanding this has really helped me stop pulling a lot. I know I find pleasure pulling out hairs. I know that I shouldn't do it. I still manage to do it anyway.

In regards to finding it (pulling hair) pleasurable, I found it amazingly useful to read The Pleasure Instinct. I have also cut down sugar/chocolate consumption since reading that too. It was really helpful all round to improve my life. I think I've even started enjoying smells (never really enjoyed smelling things before) and feeling things. I can usually not pick now if I have something nice to touch, like a bit of velcro or my headphone cord.

If you are game, try reading this document: http://www.dsm5.org/Research/Documents/Stein_Trich.pdf. I don't know how comfortable you feel with talking about this with your parents (I still haven't told my parents, after knowing about it for about a year), but it might be worthwhile sharing this with them. It is a problem, and as far as I can tell it is treatable. I suspect you're still at home and still a dependent. Your parents may be the best bet you have to stopping (They might be able to help supply you with a therapist, different shampoo/conditioner or some NAC).

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I have a friend in hospital for what I think is suicide watch. I have been super scared to talk to him in case I make things worse. I hope you have a lot of supportive friends out there who just don't know how to confront the issue and talk to you. I would really love to offer him some help, like see if he wanted some books/magazines to help pass the time, but I just don't know how strange it would be.

I stalked your comment history a bit. I didn't even know a subreddit was dedicated to shiny pokemon until now. Also, how is your kick boxing going? I have found that yoga was great for helping motivate me to stop picking.

Have you considered cutting your hair shorter like a pixie cut, but not shaving it all off. It seemed to work for a bunch of famous people like Emma Watson, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence and Felicia Day. (Tip #1 for looking good, be attractive; don't be unattractive). Sorry if that is bad advice for a girl**.


I hope this helps even slightly. If you want to talk about anything just PM me. I am a strange 26yo male from Australia.


P.S I use picking/pulling interchangeably because I pull hairs and pick in the same areas (my face) (/cryface).

You and I have had virtually identical experiences. Granting that I still struggle with getting my trich under control, here's the humble advice I can offer:

1. Identify times/situations when you tend to pull more frequently and then if possible, create uses for your hand(s) that prevent them from automatically migrating to your face. For me, driving is a big auto-pull time. With one hand on the wheel and my mind wandering, my left hand will find its way to may beard and start wreaking havoc. What I did to combat this is is buy a hand strengthener like this one which I keep in my car. When I recognize that I'm pulling, I'll grab this thing instead. I also keep silly putty in my car for the same reason.
   
   
2. Medication/therapy can and does help. Though I personally haven't yet had much luck in this department, trich is an anxiety-based behavior for which treating the underlying causative factors helps significantly. In fact, we've all tried willing ourselves to just stop and we've all seen just how effective that can be. Getting to the root (so to the speak) is the sustainable way to rectify this destructive behavior.
   On that note, try to take note of when you tend to pull more and when you tend to pull less. That is to say, try to pay attention to what else is going on in your life when your trich gets worse. Are there possibly certain triggers that are influencing the rate of your pulling? Become more mindful of how you're doing generally and how that relates to your pulling. Creating these links are important in coming to understand the behavior and ultimately stopping it.
   
   
3. Lastly, eye-shadow. Yes that's right. Go to a beauty supply store or Walmart or whatever and find a color that closely matches your beard color. I have a dark auburn/copper colored beard and ended up with a color called "latte". It's not an exact match but its close enough to where it fills in the hole(s) and blends everything together fairly seamlessly. Oh, also pick up an applicator. You can either get a small paint brush type thing or the eyeliner applicator itself (which is what I use and is pretty effective).
   
   That's all I've got. Best of luck man, I wish you many full bearded years ahead!

N-Acetyl Cysteine is an amino acid that can be taken in pill or powder form -- http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1018-N-ACETYL%20CYSTEINE.aspx?activeIngredientId=1018&activeIngredientName=N-ACETYL%20CYSTEINE
It's been recorded in a trial to reduce pulling urges. Given, the study was pretty small and NAC only proved greatly effective in 60-some percent of cases, but it's definitely worth trying. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19581567?dopt=Abstract

I've been taking the Now Foods brand. http://www.amazon.com/Foods-Nac-Acetyl-Cysteine-600mg-Vcaps/dp/B0013OUQ3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342385243&sr=8-1&keywords=n-acetyl+cysteine
It doesn't smell very good, but otherwise is easy to take and well worth the money.

Hope that helps. =]

Right there with you. About 3 weeks ago I had a full head of hair. Fairly certain that most of my office has noticed that something us up, I didn't just spontaneously gain a bald spot in that time frame. Sucks but all I can do is try to stay mindful.


My psychiatrist recommended the book The Feeling Good Handbook and it's being delivered today. He mentioned this when I asked about cognitive behavior therapy as any and all medicinal routes I have undergone have proven ineffective for me. If you'd like, I can update you as to my thoughts after having read it.

Take care and don't beat yourself up. You're a human being deserving of love, respect, and happiness. We're all flawed, our's is just a more visible flaw!

This sub is the reason I finally stopped lurking.

It's not a cure, but I use this stuff. It's pretty relieving. When the urge is overwhelming it feels like fire to put it on. Wonderful, amazing fire.

I was down to 1/4 eyebrows on both sides, but now they're full again. It's a daily application but isn't very noticeable as it dries clear. Basically it makes the tingle go away so the urge isn't there, but the habit can still cause trouble.

Okay so this is gunna sound weird but it worked for me:
Pet Coat Rebuilder - Mega-Tek 16 oz - Repairs Damaged Coat and Paw Pads and Accelerates Hair growth on Bare Spots https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00061MPGK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pcKHybQ17S92V

It's a pet conditioner but it helped me regrow around my bangs by using it as a spot treatment in those areas like a conditioner and the headband so I wouldn't pull my new growth.

It smells AMAZING and makes your hair so soft you won't even believe it.

http://www.amazon.com/Tangle-Creations-300-Therapy-by/dp/B000F8I5AE

THIS! This is great for playing with while watching a movie or studying or really anything where you have at least one hand free.

I do any of the following:
Examine the hair.
Pull it between two fingers to feel the texture of it.
Rub it against my lip
Save the ones with follicles, either sticking them to a paper, or the light switch panel if in the bathroom.
Curl them into springs, by dragging a hair strand between a finger and finger nail. (scalp only)
If I end up with a split hair, I pull the strand into two


I have a major preference for ones with follicles as it allows me to play with the follicle or stick it something.


From Page 12 of The Hair-Pulling Problem by Fred Penzel
"Beside providing visual and tactile stimulation, pulling also seems to provide needed oral stimulation. In Dr. Christensen and colleagues' study of sixty hair pullers, 48% reported a minimum of one of a number or oral behaviors performed with pulled hairs. Some 25% rubbed the hair around their mouths after pulling it out, 33% chewed or bit off the end of the hair, and 8% licked it. In addition 10% reported eating the hair. Other studies have reported higher rates."

If you interested in that book you can find it here: https://smile.amazon.com/Hair-Pulling-Problem-Complete-Guide-Trichotillomania/dp/0195149424
Note you can select to support the TLC foundation when shopping on smile.amazon.com, so that TLC gets a small percentage of the sale. The book was published in 2003, and thus the data and research in it is a bit out of date now, but overall it's an amazing in depth book about trich.

Not joking here: What about lubin' 'em up with Vaseline? If they were really slippery, would you still be able to get sufficient grip to pull?

From a physical barrier perspective, what about those "Wink-Ease" things people use at the tanning beds? They fold/overlap to create a shallow cone shape with sticky edges. You can get a 50-pack for $20 on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Trichy-Memoir-therapist-disorder/dp/0692322442

I have the a similar issue with my therapist. He attempted to hypnotize me to eliminate the behavior - in his opinion, my picking is not tied to anxiety when I know that it is. Needless to say I couldn't relax enough during the first hypnosis session and we never tried again.

I just ordered this [book] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1480288950/ref=pe_385040_30332200_TE_item) instead.